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The distance to the Galactic Center

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 February 2013

Stefan Gillessen ,
Frank Eisenhauer ,
Tobias K. Fritz ,
Oliver Pfuhl ,
Thomas Ott  and
Reinhard Genzel
Stefan Gillessen
Affiliation:
Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics, Giessenbachstrasse, 85748 Garching, Germany email: ste@mpe.mpg.de
Frank Eisenhauer
Affiliation:
Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics, Giessenbachstrasse, 85748 Garching, Germany email: ste@mpe.mpg.de
Tobias K. Fritz
Affiliation:
Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics, Giessenbachstrasse, 85748 Garching, Germany email: ste@mpe.mpg.de
Oliver Pfuhl
Affiliation:
Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics, Giessenbachstrasse, 85748 Garching, Germany email: ste@mpe.mpg.de
Thomas Ott
Affiliation:
Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics, Giessenbachstrasse, 85748 Garching, Germany email: ste@mpe.mpg.de
Reinhard Genzel
Affiliation:
Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics, Giessenbachstrasse, 85748 Garching, Germany email: ste@mpe.mpg.de Department of Physics & Astronomy, Le Conte Hall, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA
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Abstract

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One of the Milky Way's fundamental parameters is the distance of the Sun from the Galactic Center, R0. This article reviews the various ways of estimating R0, placing special emphasis on methods that have become possible recently. In particular, we focus on the geometric distance estimate made possible thanks to observations of individual stellar orbits around the massive black hole at the center of the Galaxy. The specific issues of concern there are the degeneracies with other parameters, most importantly the mass of the black hole and the definition of the reference frame. The current uncertainty is nevertheless only a few percent, with error bars shrinking every year.

Keywords

Galaxy: centerGalaxy: fundamental parameters
Type
Contributed Papers
Information
Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union , Volume 8 , Symposium S289: Advancing the Physics of Cosmic Distances , August 2012 , pp. 29 - 35
Copyright
Copyright © International Astronomical Union 2013

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